BRITISH AIRWAYS suspended flights to Saudi Arabia yesterday after the Government received intelligence that terrorists linked to al-Qaeda were planning an attack on a British aircraft.

The Department for Transport said that it had received “credible intelligence of a serious threat to UK aviation interests in Saudi Arabia”. It refused to give any details, but the intelligence appeared linked to a series of arrests and shootouts with Muslim militants in Riyadh this week.

US officials said yesterday that the Saudi authorities had discovered a document in the car of a suspected Islamic militant revealing that Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport had been placed under surveillance in preparation for an attack on a civilian airliner.

On Monday the Saudi authorities arrested ten suspected militants who belonged to a cell allegedly preparing to attack a British target.

The day after the arrest the Saudis were engaged in a day-long gunfight with a group of suspected al-Qaeda followers who were hiding in a villa south of the capital. Four Saudi anti-terrorist officers and one suspect were killed in the fighting, but several armed militants escaped.

Geoff Want, BA’s director of safety and security, said: “As a matter of precaution we have decided to suspend all flights to Saudi Arabia for the time being and we will continue to liaise closely with the British Government.”

The airline normally operates four flights a week to Riyadh and four a week to Jeddah.

For some months there has been concern that after terrorist attacks against Americans, Australians and Israelis, Britons would be targeted by the group.

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda mastermind, is a Saudi and the group has a strong support base in the country, where thousands of British expatriates work.

There have been fears of an attack on a civilian airliner since last May when a shoulder-held SA7 surface-to-air missile was fired at a US Air Force fighter near the Prince Sultan airbase south of Riyadh. The missile missed, but a civilian aircraft, either landing or taking off, would present a far more vulnerable target.

The Foreign Office and the State Department were expected to renew advice warning citizens not to visit Saudi Arabia. Already some Western expatriates and many of their families have pulled out of the country after a series of suicide bomb attacks in May against compounds housing foreigners, in which 35 people were killed.

“I have sent my wife and children to Dubai. It is not safe to be in Saudi any more,” one Western expatriate in Riyadh said. “There are many more incidents than the ones reported in the press. There is a serious battle under way in this country.”

BA cancelled services to Kenya on May 15 after the Government received intelligence of a terrorist threat and imposed a ban on flights.

The ban was lifted on June 26 after security in Nairobi improved and BA resumed its flights soon afterwards.

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